Sizing Your Internet Pipe for Your Online Backup Business

Sizing Your Internet Pipe for Your Online Backup Business

If you have ever wondered how to accurately estimate the amount of Internet bandwidth required to run an online backup business then please read on. There are a couple of key metrics which are required to do the math correctly and since we’ve run a successful online backup service for more than seven years, Wholesalebackup is happy to provide you with real world metrics to help you be successful with your online backup business.

If you have N backup users, where at peak backup time (usually around midnight) P % of these users are uploading data to you, and the average real-world upload speed from your clients to your backup servers is S mbs (assuming your Internet connection is uncapped or can burst to this level or higher), then the maximum Internet download speed (Iin) you’ll need is simply Iin = N x P x S. For a single server with around 150 users with WholesaleBackup, Iin is approximately 34mbs (or approximately 248KBs per user).

Unlike data centers, most Cloud providers charge per GB of data transferred in/out of their Cloud, so if you go that route you need to use a different formula, namely if you have N backup users who, on average, each have selected E GBs of data where D % of it changes on a daily basis, then you’re Internet transfer (It) will simple be It = N x E x D x 30days.

So, what about P, X, E, and D? We don’t know the answer for our competitor’s software (and we doubt they know the answer either because they don’t actually use their software to backup real world clients like we do), but from real world experience, using WholesaleBackup Server you’ll find them all, and more, in our document entitled “WholesaleBackup Server” which can be acquired simply by contacting us. Please also see the online book entitled “Starting an Online Backup Business: How To Guide” on WholesaleBackup.com, which provides essential information, including true cost metrics, for starting and growing a successful online backup business, based on real world experience.